Wes, Riggs & Alley's Blog

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Should Cheerleading Be A Sport?

by Alley Faith,posted Oct 23 2012 8:26AM

We were discussing this morning....turns out that the American Academy of Pediactrics says that cheerleading has become as athletic and potentially dangerous as a sport and should be considered as one in order to improve safety. They are asking school sports associations to designate cheerleading as a sport and make it subject to safety rules and better supervision, which would include on-site athletic trainers, limits on practice time, and better qualified coaches. The policy statement also says that, just like other athletes, cheerleaders should be required to do conditioning exercises and undergo physical exams before joining the squad. The number of cheerleaders injured annually has risen dramatically in the last two decades, with risks from common stunts including tossing and flipping cheerleaders and creating tall human pyramids. Do you think they should make it a sport??